Quotes by Aristotle

Hope is the dream of a waking man.

– Aristotle

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.

– Aristotle

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

– Aristotle

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.

– Aristotle

A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.

– Aristotle

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.

– Aristotle

All men by nature desire to know.

– Aristotle

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.

– Aristotle

All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.

– Aristotle

Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.

– Aristotle

As a rock on the seashore he standeth firm, and the dashing of the waves disturbeth him not. He raiseth his head like a tower on a hill, and the arrows of fortune drop at his feet. In the instant of danger, the courage of his heart sustaineth him; and the steadiness of his mind beareth him out.

– Aristotle

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

– Aristotle

Bad men are full of repentance.

– Aristotle

Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.

– Aristotle

Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

– Aristotle

Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.

– Aristotle

Change in all things is sweet.

– Aristotle

Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.

– Aristotle

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

– Aristotle

Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.